Hyderabad: Oasis Centre For Reproductive Medicine has launched a fertility preservation service for couples who are diagnosed with cancer which affects their fertility with the risk of rendering them incapable of becoming parents. Fertility preservation is the process of saving or protecting eggs, sperm, or reproductive tissue so that a person can use them to have biological children in the future.
Dr. Durga G Rao, Medical Director and Founder of Oasis Fertility, said, “Over the last few years, a lot of patients, secondary to cancer diagnosis, are being referred to us for fertility solutions. Cancer and some autoimmune and idiopathic conditions are associated with a high risk of the male or female patient losing their fertility.”
Dr Rao further added, “We try and counsel them for fertility preservation and offer them solutions like embryo cryopreservation egg or oocyte cryopreservation or semen freezing. They can come back once they are fit both mentally and physically to start the journey of parenthood.”
She said that these days at least 30 to 40% newly diagnosed patients are in the reproductive age group. Unlike in the past, because of advances in cancer care, these patients can survive and have a good quality of life post-cancer care.
Dr. Rao further explained but such patients are deprived of childbearing capacity due to damage to their fertility system from the cancer treatments of chemotherapy or radiation. Such patients, if they are aware, can preserve their sperms or embryo oocytes, prior to the cancer treatment and can become parents after they recover fully from cancer, using the preserved sperms or embryo oocytes.
The current option for such parents is adoption, but with this option, they can have their own baby. If patients, oncologists, and gynecologists are aware of this option, they can avail them in case of a serious ailment.
Krishna Chaitanya, Scientific Head and Clinical Embryologist, said, “Through fertility preservation, the sperms and embryo oocytes can be preserved for as long as 20 to 25 years.
Ratna Chotrani